I really like Gentoo and I recently switched all my computers from debian to gentoo.

There is one thing I would like to see in Gentoo: Some option to see if non-free programs are installed on my system. And maybe some option (use-variable?) to prevent non-free programs to be installed.

Currently I see no possibility to see if Gentoo installs Proprietary-Software (like Blackdown-Java, NVidia-Driver).
Might it be possible to add some option to each ebuild of non-free Software and let the user know when he installs something non-free?

I don't disagree with your post (in fact, I don't really care one way or the other). I'm just curious why you think Gentoo should have a non-free section? Is it strictly from a idealogical point of view or are there other reasons?

(again, I don't care one way or the other -- just curious what your reasoning is)

--kurt_________________The problem with political jokes is that they get elected

I think Gentoo could have a non-free section, as long as it kept with the idea-ology of Gentoo, but I don't think it is a great idea. I have no idea how it would be implimented, cause Gentoo is extreamly free (beer and speach).
I don't think it would win over than many new people to the distro, but it would be a good bit more to upkeep for the developers. Especially if people have problems with the non-free stuff.
-Andrew

I think Gentoo could have a non-free section, as long as it kept with the idea-ology of Gentoo, but I don't think it is a great idea. I have no idea how it would be implimented, cause Gentoo is extreamly free (beer and speach).

I think the point is that Gentoo, as it stands now, uses some decidedly non-Free products. The original poster mentioned two and I'm sure there are others.

Debian has a non-free section, which is mainly used for idealogical separation. It also has the ability, though /etc/apt/sources.list, to not use non-Free software.

Not sure it would be all that difficult for Gentoo to implement, since most of it would simply be moving some ebuilds to another section. However, the difficult part would be enabling a way to restrict non-free software from being installed on a machine. USE variable won't cut it since USE variables don't override dependencies (just suggestions). I suppose you might be able to use a package.mask -- anyone know if you can mask an entire ebuild directory?

--kurt_________________The problem with political jokes is that they get elected

Last edited by klieber on Wed May 08, 2002 9:57 pm; edited 2 times in total

I think the easiest way to implement this would be to simply add a LICENSE variable to the Portage system. In the ebuilds we would have LICENSE="GPL" or something. Then, modify qpkg (included in the gentoolkit) to query those licenses.

Just a thought, personally, it doesn't matter all that much to me. I think other areas need more work then adding new features._________________- Kyle Manna

I am sorry, I was mistaken as to which "free" was being talked about, I thought that the original poster ment "free" (beer) and not "freedom". I think that things like the NVdriver are good to have in the Gentoo tree.
Installing Java would be easier with a proprietary section of the portage tree.